1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a medium for performing image processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the digital camera has spread and the number of pieces of electronized image data is increasing. These pieces of image data are taken into a PC and attached to a document together with text and graphics using an application on the PC.
In the case where printing of a document including these pieces of image data is performed on an application of a computer, a printer driver converts the document into print data (PDL data) in the page description language (PDL) format. Next, the PDL data is transmitted to a printing device (e.g., printer) connected with the computer via a network and printing is performed. In the printer driver, settings of resolution, color conversion, etc., can be performed, and therefore, it is made possible to perform printing by appropriate image processing. Further, in the printing device also, image processing, such as color processing and edge enhancement, is performed on a bitmap image obtained by performing rendering on the PDL data.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an outline of a flow of conventional processing of PDL data.
Image data before resolution conversion included in PDL data is subjected to data analysis at step S401, and at step S402, is subjected to image processing, such as CMS. Next, at step S403, intermediate data (Display List, abbreviated to DL in the present specification) is generated. Next, at step S404, the generated DL is subjected to rendering. At the time of rendering, at step S405, the resolution of the image data is converted into an output resolution. Next, the edge of a bitmap generated by rendering is enhanced at step S406, and at step S407, the color is converted (e.g., conversion from RGB into CMYK) and at step S408, printing is performed.
In the processing shown in FIG. 3, the resolution of the bitmap after being subjected to rendering is high, and therefore, it is desirable to increase the rate by using hardware. Further, for the image processing, the method for determining the kind of an image based on the number of colors and automatically switching color processing based on the determination has been proposed (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-085546).